O’HARA TWP — The first weekend of the PIAA wrestling postseason ran the gamut for Butler.

A pair of wrestlers easily took care of business to win gold at the WPIAL Class 3A Boys Wrestling Individual Northern Sectional Tournament, a couple more made the podium to extend their season at least a week and a few more were left wanting.

Such is wrestling life at this time of year.

Santino Sloboda (127 pounds) and Kase Chopp (145) each easily proved up to their No. 1 seeds with high-scoring performances to capture gold Saturday at Fox Chapel High School, with Sloboda winning his third straight section title. They were the lone Butler County wrestlers to win gold in a competitive field that featured Kiski Area and North Allegheny, which each produced three section champions.

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And the Golden Tornado advanced five other wrestlers into next week’s WPIAL Class 3A Boys Individual Wrestling Championships at Canon-McMillan High School.

Gavin Rush took silver at 152, Nick Savannah snagged bronze at 107, Sully Stutz finished fourth at 121, Sutton Stoner won fifth at 160 and Mason Swidzinski finished sixth at 133.

“We did better than I thought. ... I think we did fine,” Chopp said, capturing the split feelings of the day.

Savannah’s performance, even including an 8-4 semifinal loss to Pine-Richland's Bennett Ferraro, perhaps impressed the most.

The sophomore trailed North Allegheny’s Joseph Synan 4-0 early in the third-place match before landing a reverse and shortly after tying up the match. A third-period escape sealed a 5-4 victory and bronze.

“I was hoping we’d get him into the finals at 107, but the Ferraro kid has really been wrestling well,” Butler coach Scott Stoner said.

And freshman Swidzinski also showed some resilience in battling through consolations to make it to WPIALs. Swidzinski entered the day 10-15 after a season in which he’s been asked to fill roster holes, Stoner said.

Chopp was tactical in his 19-4, technical fall win in the second period over Armstrong’s Max Formaini. He connected on a number of shots in sequence and was not particularly tested. But he feels he has to become a little less predictable on his takedowns — his “bread and butter” is his snap-down go-behind — as the competition stiffens.

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“I think it’s always good to have that, but people watch you, get film and stuff, you gotta change it up at some point,” Chopp said.

Chopp, a senior who reached 100 wins in December, is not willing to take anything for granted right now. He still feels the sting of a handful of early season losses, including two against WPIAL wrestlers he may face next week in Baldwin’s Ramil Iglamov and Bethel Park’s Ethan Higgins, the top seeds out of the southern section.

Sectionals is just the next step in a larger goal, to get back to the state championships and land his first medal.

“I’ve already had a few losses on the season, tough losses where I haven’t wrestled my best, so at this point there’s no reason not to just go out and wrestle,” Chopp said. “The hard things have already been done, I’m in shape, I’m good, I know what I’m capable of.”

Higgins, especially, is someone Chopp wants another crack at.

“Bad mentality,” Chopp said of what went wrong the first time. “I lost a close match, didn’t wrestle well at all.”

Sloboda, meanwhile, is aiming to get back on the Hershey podium and potentially make a run at gold after finishing fourth as a freshman and sixth as a sophomore.

The junior Pitt commit’s postseason is off to an equally sound start, despite battling illness all week. Sloboda said he got tired quickly Saturday, but he still easily dispatched Indiana’s Carter Putt by tech fall, 17-1, in the third period of the final. The two might face off again next week.

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“I wanted to prove to myself I could bonus everybody even with how I’m feeling,” Sloboda said. “So, it’s kind of a mental thing.

“I think if I wrestle (Putt) again it’ll be different, I think I’ll be able to (finish him) faster than that. I think the flu was kind of holding me back.”

A new wrinkle this year in Class 3A is the addition of a regional tournament. Previously, the WPIAL championships served as the PIAA West Regional. But declining 3A membership in the district, Stoner said, led to realignment.

Now, Sloboda, Chopp and other wrestlers hoping to make it to Hershey have an extra week of postseason wrestling. The top seven wrestlers at WPIALs will make regionals, which begin Feb. 28 at Canon-McMillan.

Local Medalists

Championship

127 — Santino Sloboda (Butler) tech. fall Carter Putt (Indiana), 17-1, 4:43

139 — Dominic Ferraro (Pine-Richland) fall Zach Hill (Seneca Valley), 0:32

145 — Kase Chop (Butler) tech. fall Max Formaini (Armstrong), 19-4, 2:11

152 — Griffen Reid (North Allegheny) major dec. Gavin Rush (Butler), 13-1

Third-Place Match

107 — Nicholas Savannah (Butler) dec. Joseph Synan (North Allegheny), 5-4

121 — Samuel Passarelli (Mars) dec. Sullivan Stutz (Butler), 4-1 (SV)

145 — Liam Hein (Mars) dec. Tuscan Blystone (Indiana), 9-4

Fifth-Place Match

107 — Riley Smith (Seneca Valley) wins by forfeit Giovanni Polito (North Hills)

114 — Bryce Berekstazi (Seneca Valley) fall Luke Montgomery (Fox Chapel), 5:36

133 — Jonah Cable (Shaler) tech. fall Mason Swidzinski (Butler), 15-0, 2:27

160 — Sutton Stoner (Butler) fall Alex Weber (Shaler), 1:51

172 — Dominic Fanella (Indiana) fall Joseph Zottola (Mars), 1:52